This invention relates to an agricultural machine for picking up from a field and chopping a crop such as grass which has been previously cut. The machine, which may be a trailer has provision for picking up the previously cut crop and for chopping it up and it also has a container in which the crop is collected.
Such a machine has particular utility in relation to a green crop, that is a crop which has not been allowed to dry, after cutting, to any great extent and which is therefore suitable for the making of silage.
Agricultural machines for dry crop harvesting are known in which a dry crop, such as weather dried straw or hay, lying on the ground is picked up by a suitable device and passed to a conveyor means arranged generally above the picking up device and transverse to the direction of travel, the crop then being fed by the transverse conveyor to a baler unit which generally extends longitudinally of the machine. Usually there is only one baler unit at one side of the machine though baler units may be placed at each side of the machine, the transverse conveyor being arranged to distribute the crop to both sides, that is from the centre outwards to each baler unit. The dry crop is tied into bales and then discharged or fed to a collecting unit. Such machines are made specifically for dry crop harvesting. Green crop is not normally baled in this way and requires to be chopped up into short lengths. For silage it is stored in silos or other airtight chambers in a loose state.